A method and apparatus for controlling a process in a system comprising pre-processing of a raw material, processing the pre-processed raw material and acquisition of the result of the processing of the pre-processed raw material, comprising the steps of: capturing input and output variables of the pre-processing; capturing output variables of the processing of the pre-processed raw material; creating a first, second and third process model for at least two different time scales, which describes the effects of adapting the pre-processing of raw material, the effects of adapting the processing of the pre-processed raw material, the effects of adapting the pre-processing of raw material and adapting the processing of pre-processed raw material on the output variables of the processing of pre-processed raw material; wherein the process in the system is controlled using the prediction of the process model which currently provides the best predictions for the process in the system.

In one embodiment, a gas turbine system includes a controller configured to receive fuel composition information related to a fuel used for combustion in a turbine combustor; receive oxidant composition information related to an oxidant used for combustion in the turbine combustor; receive oxidant flow information related to a flow of the oxidant to the turbine combustor; determine a stoichiometric fuel-to-oxidant ratio based at least on the fuel composition information and the oxidant composition information; and generate a control signal for input to a fuel flow control system configured to control a flow of the fuel to the turbine combustor based on the oxidant flow information, a target equivalence ratio, and the stoichiometric fuel-to-oxidant ratio to enable combustion at the target equivalence ratio in the presence of an exhaust diluent within the turbine combustor.

A fuel regulator, such for use in a commercial boiler, can include a control valve plumbed between a source line and a feed line. The feed line can be coupled to a burner configured to burn fuel supplied thereto at a range of pressures and the source line can be coupled to a source of fuel configured to supply the fuel at a pressure higher than the range of pressures. One or more sensors can be configured to detect an operating level of the burner. One or more actuators can be configured to control the valve according to the sensor and thereby control a flame from the burner.

A method for controlled operation of a heated industrial furnace having a furnace chamber is provided. Fuel is conducted into the furnace chamber virtually without combustion air and a gaseous oxygen carrier is also conducted. The supply of fuel and the gaseous oxygen carrier is controlled by a control loop. A first adjustable manipulated variable in the form of a flow of fuel and/or a second adjustable manipulated variable in the form of a flow of the gaseous oxygen carrier is set by a final controlling element. In the control loop, an energy requirement is determined and fed to a quantitative control and to a quantitative fuel control for the fuel. The flow of the gaseous oxygen carrier is determined as a process value of a flow of the gaseous oxygen carrier and the flow of fuel is determined as a process value of a volumetric flow of fuel.

A method of regulating a burner which is supplied with an air-fuel mixture includes: determining a regulating variable based on an ionization signal, the air-fuel mixture being set depending on the regulating variable and a setpoint value; obtaining a spectrum from the ionization signal, from which a measure for a surface area is determined; and adjusting the setpoint value depending on the measure for the surface area. Also described is a burner arrangement including a burner.

A heat controlled oven system includes a plurality of oven levels, including an oven belt and gas burners; a gas flow network, including a gas supply line, a variable flow control valve, and on/off flow control valves; and a heat control unit, including a processor, a non-transitory memory, and input/output component, a heat modeler, a heat manager, a feedback controller, and a valve controller, such that the heat control unit is configured to calculate an estimated heat demand to adjust to a temperature set point, based on a heat model of the at least one oven level, and further calculates an optimized heat demand using a control loop feedback algorithm. Also disclosed is a method of heat calculation for an oven, including defining a heat model, calculating and optimizing the estimated heat demand, calculating and setting a variable valve position for the gas burners.

Various embodiments of the present technology relate to emission monitoring. Some embodiments comprise an exhaust testing system to characterize exhaust gas composition. The exhaust testing system comprises a sampling system and a gas analyzer. The sampling system is coupled to an exhaust stack of a combustion system. The sampling system comprises a cage, sampling pipes, and valves. The cage is mounted to the opening of the exhaust stack. The sampling pipes are mounted to the cage. The sampling pipes capture exhaust gas generated by the combustion system and emitted through the opening of the exhaust stack. The valves control gas flow through the sampling pipes. The gas analyzer is coupled to the sampling pipes. The gas analyzer determines gas composition of the exhaust gas.

A flame analytics system that may incorporate a burner, one or more sensors at the burner, a historical database connected to the one or more sensors, a model training module connected to the historical database, and a runtime algorithm module connected to the one or more sensors and the model training module. The runtime algorithm may compare realtime data from the one or more sensors and historical data from the model training module in accordance with a machine learning algorithm. The system may further incorporate a fault detection module connected to the runtime algorithm module, a fault diagnostics module connected to the fault detection module, and an enunciator connected to the fault detection module. The one or more sensors may also include having video or acoustic sensitivity of combustion in the burner.

A facility for control of a combustion apparatus comprising: a memory storing a limit value and a correction factor; a communication connection to a sensor and an actuator; and a processor. The processor: receives an input signal from the sensor; uses the signal to form a measured value specifying a fuel air ratio, an air ratio, and/or an oxygen content; and loads the limit value and compares the measured value with the limit value. If the measured value is less than or greater than the limit value, the processor either loads the correction factor and determines a correction value as a function of the limit value, the correction factor, and the measured value, or loads the stored correction value from the memory, and then creates an output signal as a function of the correction value and sends the output signal to the actuator.